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| Elder Ward, Elder Pyne (waiting for a visa to Argentina) and Elder Bassett |
Another week, and it's still a great day to be a missionary
in the Utah Ogden Mission (that's our mission's motto). We are loving it with
our brand new set of 11 visa waiters that showed up yesterday heading to
Argentina. Visa waiters never really have gone to zone leaders, but as soon as
we found out there were some coming in, we called the assistants and asked if
we could have one, ha-ha. So… Elder Pyne
got here yesterday after six weeks in the MTC and is heading to Mendoza
Argentina. He is from St. Louis and has been here about 24 hours. He is a
really nice guy; we like him a lot. He is excited about missionary work and
seems to get along really well in our companionship. He did Rosetta Stone
before the mission, so he talks just about as much Spanish as I did when I got
out. He did really well with his first contact yesterday, and of course, loves
the perks of being a Utah missionary. We went to Sam’s Club today, and a lady
walked up and handed us 20 dollars for lunch. That’s always a plus. We went to
Olive Garden again last week with the assistants, and someone paid for us so
that was a lot more breadsticks as well.
Something AWFUL happened in church on Sunday, though. I saw
a lady that recognized me from my first area of the mission. She walked up to
me and told me that I looked fat. I said what?! I haven't put on any weight,
and she said it looked like I had put on a bunch. I was very offended despite
everyone telling me that means I look healthy. This is the same lady that eight
months ago told me that I looked like I was 14; so I wasn't exactly happy to
see her again either. Then she went and bought us rancheritos and brought it to
her house on Sunday, ha-ha. I don't think they quite understand the whole
Sabbath-day-holy thing. We thought she planned on making the burritos herself
when we called the night before to ask about dinner.
Side note...Elder Ward's birthday is April 24th
(same as Brandon’s!), and he is obsessed with the alloy energel pen dad just
sent me if you want to send him an early birthday present. We had a really funny
musical number happen on Sunday. It was a farewell for a nineteen-year-old girl,
and in between talks two Hispanic ladies came up with an ipad and played that
bouncy soundtrack for, ‘I Hope They Call Me On a Mission’ and sang the first
verse about as badly as you can imagine and then sat down. Elder Ward and I
have gotten really good at keeping straight faces during musical numbers in the
Spanish program.
Speaking of which, we are giving a musical number at a
party/welcome-home for a kid serving a misison that gets home this Saturday.
All seven missionaries of the ward are invited, but only the three of us are
white and can therefore sing, ha-ha. So we are singing, ‘Mas Cerca Dios de Ti’
(‘Nearer My God to Thee’). The first verse is all melody; second I am
bass, and they are melody; third I am bass, Elder Ward tenor, and Elder Pyne
melody. Elder Ward is the only one who knows how to sing, but I have learned
not to really care since they think missionaries sound amazing no matter how
bad we are.
So anyways, I am fat. I still lift everyday and don't think
I look fat, but that lady couldn't have just been making it up, so I have been
eating less the past couple of days and just won't ever have seconds anymore, and
I am going to start lifting harder and running. See if they call me fat now.
HA!
So we found out on Sunday that we are being poached by at
least two sets of missionaries that are teaching people in our boundaries...and
we have the smallest area out of all of them by far. I don't get why they don't
just send us the referral; we give out probably five referrals a day. You would
think people would be more considerate, but oh well, if they want to teach them
then there is really nothing we can do about it.
So Elder Ardaya, one the assistants, goes to the same gym as
us in the mornings, and he says I look and sound like Kevin Costner which I
think is ridiculous, but what do you think?
I had my first zone leader council this week, and lots of
people said it was the best one they have ever been to. I really liked it. It
was very spiritual. We talked a lot about making Christ the center of
everything we do. They did a role-play for us, and it was mainly just the two
assistants crying while talking about Christ, and we have used it, too and
really liked it. We talked about the mission goal for the next two weekends
(two days ago and the coming week)… how each zone needs to get 11 baptisms in
order to complete our goal of 460 baptisms in three months. We had a mission
wide fast on Sunday. We only had a couple of missionaries refuse to do it,
because they have too much pride to listen to Sister Hiers since, "she's
not even our mission president"...love those guys...but the rest of us did
it. All the zone leaders were very excited to accomplish it after hearing them
talk about how that goal was by revelation and Jesus Christ expects that many
baptisms in two weeks and to get it done. So we are going to try to do our part
although we have J1 and the APs in our zone, so we would be fine anyways.
So we were going to keep going with Robin's date for this
weekend, but he won't quit smoking. He said he really just wants to slow down
anyways when we talked to him yesterday. He is funny; he has the most passive,
round-about way of telling us anything. He took ten minutes to tell us that it’s
annoying how we come over all the time, and he doesn’t want to get baptized
yet. It kind of just made us laugh because of the way he talks....."I mean,
you know, it's cool, essentially, that you come over. I mean, I love it, you
guys are importantly, awesome… and initially, I love that you visit me, I mean,
yeah it is annoying, now that I think about it...but yeah I love it..." he
speaks in a very weird way. I hope this illustrates it a little bit. So he is
definitely not going to help us with our goal, but one person that will is
Sister Ramirez.
She doesn’t live in a our ward boundaries, but her two kids
go to our ward, because they like it better. People here don't understand
boundaries; they just go where they feel like, but we talked to the leaders and
they just told us to teach them (She lives in Elder Plowman’s area, and he
knows about it.) and baptized them into Jefferson second since she will be
moving to Mexico eventually anyways. She came to church and one of the AP’s
baptisms last Saturday and wants to do it but has all these weak concerns that
are covering that ice burg we are trying to figure out. She is worried about
the church not being in Mexico…and just taking our word for it rather than the
Lords, and she doesn’t want to get in the water, and doesn’t want anyone to
watch. It's tough to be patient with those types of concerns, but we are doing
are best and left her on Sunday with an invitation to pray about it.
Karina has effectively avoided us for a few days, as well as
Ray, so they are both out, but Jose is back from Mexico so hopefully, we can teach
him eventually. The lady, Maria, that really loves us kind of dropped us
yesterday, because she said that her husband doesn’t like us, and she wants to
support him even though she knows God sent us. We left her number to call us
and maybe I just have lack of faith, but she will never call. Lots of other
rejections came from people that have taken the lessons already…this area is
tough!
This area, Hyrum, and Idaho are known as the non-baptizing Spanish
areas of the mission (lucky me :)), but I have been always trying to not let
the history of areas or excuses slow me down, but it’s been tough. I feel like
I haven't been that successful as a missionary, but I try to ignore that and
just keep going anyways. They always talk about how the world is changing, the
numbers are picking up, and baptizing weekly is an expectation of the Lord now...so
am I doing my part? But honestly, I have been happy. I love this area and don't
ever get down. We are happy all the time and working hard. Elder Ward is the
best. He will help me to be more successful even in an area that is pretty
tough and doesn’t have any more than ten baptisms in the past year. Asi es la
vida.
Elder Pyne seems cool. We were excited yesterday at the
office. They brought each greenie up one at a time and announced them. We
almost tackled him when they called our name, and it was even funnier, because
he is so small. He has been distracting us with a fairly detailed description
of batman yesterday during a late night discussion, and he has that fire that
you have coming out of the MTC.
They have no idea what to do with all these new
missionaries. They are going to start switching us to English, which I would
really not like, but I guess it has to happen, because we have too many Spanish
and not enough English. Our zone is doing pretty well. We need to emphasize
some rules people have been struggling to remember in district meeting, but
other than that, we are trying to be everybody's friend and show lots of love
to everyone-except of course the sisters. I did three baptismal interviews this
week and one the week before. We went to an English correlation and were
astounded, as usual, when they addressed the English missionaries, they
demanded that each of their nightly splits have a list of 30-50 people to visit
as back-ups. Then they got to us, and we asked for some ward missionaries… NOPE...ha-ha.
We are working a lot with the young men…well we are working
with one guy named Logan, and he has fire to do missionary work even though he
is the priest quorum advisor, and he has been doing all the ward missionary
work. The members are starting to trust us a little bit more as they see we are
working but still no referrals yet. The high council guy over missionary work
is the ex-mayor of Ogden and is really excited about getting our ward to start
doing something. He has some ideas that should get things going in the next few
months. Still doing lots of tracting every day and a little less active work we
have gotten from the bishop. Less active work has been different here. The less
actives tend to not like the missionaries very much here, so we are just trying
to build their trust really.
We have the best apartment ever still and still the best
companionship ever. We are working on charity and being effective in
companionship study which will be remedied by having to do the 12 week program
again with Elder Pyne.
I have noticed a difference in the way some of the missionaries
with bad opinions of me beforehand showing that they are starting to trust and
like me which is really good from the Spanish missionaries. They are good guys
and just need some loving pushes back in the right direction. We are battling
to find the line between micromanaging and just letting everything slide. It’s
a tough one to figure out. Well it is time to run now.
Life is great in the Utah Ogden Mission!
Elder Bassett
PS By the way thank you for the thank you cards! We draw
Elder Pyne on the inside just as a stick figure. Thanks again; they are perfect
and the members love them. BTW-I can't complain, because I don't write them
either, but it has been a couple months since I have heard from my siblings!
Part of the responses about his letter:
Mom: You're not fat. You are just growing up, and you're
features are changing, and you are maturing. That's what she is seeing. Still
keep eating!!!
Taylor: NOPE
Dad: She's right though. Your features are changing; we can
see it in the pics. You know Hispanics, that's just how they talk. But if
you're serious then you better reject the package we just sent you.
Taylor: I'll take the package and just run an extra couple
miles. The problem was that she said it in English, another condescending way
of her saying that I probably don't speak Spanish since I am white…but I
answered in Spanish. I guess I am just overly sensitive.
Mom: Ha-ha. You probably have a larger than normal share of
your mother's vanity. I think that was her way of ensuring that you didn’t
eat very much at dinner.
Taylor: It worked!
Mom: She must be smarter then she looks. Or crafty.
BTW-What a great letter!
Taylor: What made this one good?
Mom: Even though things are challenging, you were so upbeat,
focused, and positive. You sound happy. You sound optimistic. It's been a trend
in the last four or five letters.
Taylor: Huh, I guess that’s good. Things are always good if
you have a good companion. Or maybe not, but at least I am figuring it out, and
you can tell! Because it is tough, but I am still happy. I feel like I have
been out a lot longer than 10 months.
Mom: Me, too. Dad
says time will start to go really fast right about now. While Jess read your
letter to us in the car, we talked about how being a missionary is spoiling
you. You're really not going to want to come home to us.
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